On Thursday, EU countries and EU lawmakers sign a deal on new landmark rules by the European Union that will regulate the powers of the US tech giants such as Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft in Europe, enforcing them to change their core business practices.
France, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a tweet that there was a provisional agreement after eight hours of talks. EU industry chief Thierry Breton also confirmed the news in a tweet.
Proposed by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager just over a year ago in response to the slow pace of competition investigations, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) sets out rules for companies that control data and platform access.
Under the DMA, the tech giants will have to make their messaging services interoperable and provide business users access to their data. Business users would be able to promote competing products and services on a platform and reach deals with customers of the platforms.
The rules prohibit the companies from favoring their own services over rivals’ or preventing users from removing pre-installed software or apps.
The DMA will apply to companies with a market capitalization of 75 billion euros, 7.5 billion euros in annual turnover, and at least 45 million monthly users.
Thus, companies will face massive fines of 10 percent of their yearly global turnover in case of rule breaches and 20 percent for repeated wrongdoings.
About Author
